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Peter Michaelson: Well, the launch will be the most exciting thing. You know, I’m sure we’ll all be breathless.

Lynn Cominsky: Launch is just very thrilling. It’s a really exciting thing to go to and to experience.

Dave Thompson: But on the other hand, when you’ve worked on a project for many years, as a lot of us have, and it’s sitting out there on the launch pad, you know that in 90 seconds, it could be all over.

Kevin Grady: On the day of launch you’ve turned this half-a-billion dollar piece of hardware, that you’ve spent five years with, over to another group. And, they’re putting it on this enormous rocket, and you relinquish total control. And so there’s about an hour there where you’re quite anxious.

Neil Johnson: There’s a lot of ways a launch can go wrong. But, it’s part of the risk you take.

Jonathan Ormes: It’s worth holding your breath, crossing your fingers, whatever you do to make sure it works.

Chip Meegan: You really are tense when those rockets go off, because a lot is riding on it—a lot of work by a lot of people, and a lot of people’s futures too.

Dave Thompson: But there’s also the excitement of saying, you know, we’ve worked on this for so many years, and now it’s going into space and now we’re going to get to do what we really want to do, which is learn about the universe.

Luke Drury: There’s always a chance when you launch a new satellite or open a new window on the universe that you will see things that you hadn’t expected. And those are the really exciting and interesting things.

Per Carlson: So, finally now, when it comes to a launch, it’s really exciting to see the instruments and to see data coming in.

Isabelle Grenier: It will be a rush.

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